“They butterfly from one thing to another. We are seeing more people manage their personal life in the office and their work managed at home."

Peupion, author of Work Smarter: Live Better, says the Australian workforce has changed dramatically, with the introduction of smartphone technology blurring the line between our personal and professional lives.

AFR
AFR

“A key characteristic of high performers is focus," he says.

“And this can be difficult with constant distractions. Email, easily accessible on your phone, can be great but a curse at the same time. Employees need to ask themselves if their inbox is managing them, or are they managing it."

A study by the Centre for Creative Leadership in the United States, which surveyed Australian workers, found expectations of professionals to be “always on" have increased as 60 per cent of people with smartphones connect to work for 13½ hours a day, five days a week, and spend about five hours scanning emails over the weekend.

21st century sweatshop

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The study found if a person spent 13½ hours a day connected to work and got 7½ hours of sleep a night, they would have three hours a day spare.

“This is the 21st century sweatshop, the daily reality for many executives, managers and professionals," the report stated.

“While professionals thought they should respond to [emails during evenings and weekends], it was higher-level managers and executives who felt they had an obligation to answer emails."

The study cited a case where a boss was angry at his junior because he hadn’t received a response from her before 7am after emailing her at 2am.

Another employee said every week he received about 53 work emails on a Saturday and was expected to respond to them by Monday morning.

More hours, less productivity

According to the 2011 census, the average Australian man worked 41 hours a week and the average woman 32 hours. Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre exe­cutive director John Spoehr said more hours led to lower productivity.

“There’s very much a laissez-faire approach in workplaces when it comes to answering emails in personal time," associate professor Spoehr said.

“The expectation is that workers are ‘on’ all the time. Which also changes the way we think, [affecting] the brain, shortening attention spans and reducing social engagement."

Smartphones were an intrusion into personal lives and the volume of emails employees were expected to trawl through was increasing.

He said Australians were already working long hours and technology was reinforcing this, creating more stress and anxiety in the workforce.

“The introduction of smartphones in the past five years has been revolu­tionary to the Australian workforce."